Wireless telephones are popular, ubiquitous devices. It is now possible to make and receive phone calls from almost any place in the world. Communication is even possible from remote and undeveloped areas using wireless satellite telephones. Herein, the term wireless telephone refers to any device capable of transmitting and receiving voice and/or data (non-voice) information to and from a network without the use of wires, cables, or other tangible transmission media. So called cellular telephones are a common example of wireless phones.
Wireless telephones and the networks by which they communicate include analog mobile phone service (AMPS), and so-called second generation (2G) and third-generation (3G) devices that operate according to various communication technologies, including circuit switching, packet switching, wireless local area network (LAN) protocols, code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency-division multiplexing (FDM), spread-spectrum, global system for mobile communications (GSM), high-speed circuit-switched data (HCSD), general packet radio system (GPRS), enhanced data GSM environment (EDGE), and universal mobile telecommunications service (UMTS). Of course, these are only examples, and other technologies may be employed in wireless communication as well.
Herein, the term ‘wireless device’ is meant to include wireless telephones (including cellular, mobile, and satellite telephones), and also to include a variety of other wireless devices, including wireless web-access telephones, automobile, laptop, and desktop computers that communicate wirelessly, and wireless personal digital assistants (PDAs). In general, the term ‘wireless device’ refers to any device with wireless communication capabilities.
Many companies produce wireless telephones and other wireless devices. Among the more well-known producers are Nokia®, Ericsson®, Motorola®, Panasonic®, Palm® Computer, and Handspring®. A variety of producers also provide wireless devices comprising versions of the Microsoft® Windows® operating software.
Along with the ubiquity of wireless telephones come drawbacks. One drawback is that public and private places are now prone to interruption by incoming calls to wireless phones. In certain places, such as movie theatres and meeting rooms, such interruptions may be unwelcome.
One solution to this problem is described in United States Patent Publication No. 20040203794, entitled System and Method for Providing an Automatic Response to a Telephone Call. A voice or text response is sent to the caller without requiring the user of the telephone to answer the call. The user may perform an action (such as pressing a button on the telephone) to initiate response, or the telephone and/or network may automatically (without user intervention) initiate response.
Modern wireless telephones may be configured with profiles to control the behavior of the telephone in different situations. As used herein, the term “profile” refers to data, stored in an electronic memory of the telephone, telephone peripheral device, or the network, which may be accessed to determine the behavior of a wireless telephone. One or more profiles may be available for the phone, such as Normal, Silent, and Meeting. The ‘active’ profile is the profile selected from among the available profiles to control the phone's behavior. For example, a Meeting profile may include settings to control the manner in which a telephone behaves upon receiving an incoming call (vibrate or ring, ring tone, number of rings before going to voice mail, etc.). When the “Meeting” profile is selected, the phone may vibrate instead of ringing upon receiving an incoming call, and may go to voice mail after a single ring.
Profiles are convenient, effective, and well understood by the users of wireless telephones. The response of wireless phones to incoming calls or other communication events could thus benefit from the expanded use of profiles.